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Officer recalled over security lapse

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Australian Federal Police have launched a high-level
investigation into a security breach involving confidential
Australian diplomatic cables and police documents that were left in
open files on a computer and read by guests at a hotel in
Nepal.

Within hours of The Age revealing the breach yesterday,
the AFP ordered an officer based in south Asia to return at once to
Australia.

"The breach is believed to have involved an officer using a USB
stick in a hotel computer," the AFP said in a statement.

"The officer allegedly involved in the security breach will be
returned to Australia to assist the investigation."

AFP officers also yesterday apologised to family members of a
Melbourne couple killed in a plane crash near Mount Everest on
October 8.

Police photographs of the charred bodies of Andrew Frick McLeod,
31, his girlfriend Charlene Kate Zamudio, 24, and 16 other crash
victims were left on a computer and could be seen by guests at the
Radisson Hotel in Kathmandu for three weeks, The Age
revealed yesterday.

In a statement, the AFP said: "While the full circumstances
surrounding the security breach are yet to be established, the AFP
has spoken to the families of the Australian victims and
unreservedly apologised for any additional distress it may have
caused."

The Age revealed documents left on computers in the
hotel's business centre included a copy of a seven-page document
detailing priorities and strategies for the AFP's office in
Bangladesh, including information about sharing intelligence with
foreign agencies.

A hotel guest took copies of some of the material and gave them
to The Age so that Australian authorities would be made
aware of the security breach.